In practice this is not true at all. For example, I’ve been turned down for senior-level roles in the past, roles requiring deep experience and rigour, after do

In practice this is not true at all. For example, I’ve been turned down for senior-level roles in the past, roles requiring deep experience and rigour, after doing weeks of difficult interviews and having a great rapport with the hiring manager and getting lots of positive feedback. The reason for not choosing me was, “we are looking for someone with less experience.” It’s just a crap shoot in any given company. Behind the scenes you don’t know what the power stuggle is and how it shapes which people have the power to hire who they want vs. which people are commanded to minimize the budget at all costs. Other companies want senior level experience at junior level prices and are willing to leave headcount unfilled for years rather than pay conpetitively. And the broader point is that jobs like what I described (where you gain meaningful experience from your actual work projects, rather than needing to pass some outrageous barrier of expertise to get hired only to do menial work that causes your skills to atrophy) doesn’t exist. It’s not a question of out-competing other candidates.